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Maskin, Eric, and
Jean Tirole. 2004. "The Politician and the Judge: Accountability in Government."
American Economic Review,
94(4): 1034-1054.

Show Article Details

DOI: 10.1257/0002828042002606

Abstract:We build a simple model to capture the major virtues and drawbacks of making public officials accountable (i. e., subjecting them to reelection): On the one hand, accountability allows the public to screen and discipline their officials; on the other, it may induce those officials to pander to public opinion and put too little weight on minority welfare. We study when decision-making powers should be allocated to the public directly (direct democracy), to accountable officials (called "politicians"), or to nonaccountable officials (called "judges").

Authors:
Maskin, Eric
Tirole, Jean

JEL Classifications:
: None

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